Missing the big picture: Global form perception from infancy to adolescence. There is hardly another system, either biological or artificial, that surpasses the visual system in its ability to process extremely complex and dynamic information. The questions concerning developmental aspects of this ability have been one of the most fascinating in both philosophical and scientific inquiry. This research will provide insights of theoretical significance to the perceptual bases of cognitive developm ....Missing the big picture: Global form perception from infancy to adolescence. There is hardly another system, either biological or artificial, that surpasses the visual system in its ability to process extremely complex and dynamic information. The questions concerning developmental aspects of this ability have been one of the most fascinating in both philosophical and scientific inquiry. This research will provide insights of theoretical significance to the perceptual bases of cognitive development. The research proposed will enhance international collaboration and strengthen Australia's strong reputation in vision research. It also contributes to national research training by offering honours and PhD students research training and international exposure.
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Unifying models of reasoning and memory. Inductive reasoning involves extending current knowledge to new contexts and is therefore essential for effective learning, decision-making and innovative problem solving. This project extends our understanding of this crucial cognitive skill by developing a new and more comprehensive model of human induction. It also examines patterns of inductive development during the pre-school and primary school years, laying the foundation for the development of bet ....Unifying models of reasoning and memory. Inductive reasoning involves extending current knowledge to new contexts and is therefore essential for effective learning, decision-making and innovative problem solving. This project extends our understanding of this crucial cognitive skill by developing a new and more comprehensive model of human induction. It also examines patterns of inductive development during the pre-school and primary school years, laying the foundation for the development of better methods for teaching children how to reason.Read moreRead less
Category learning and conceptual change in children. Fundamental to children's cognitive development is the ability to form concepts and generalize beyond direct experience. This project examines the effect of pre-existing beliefs and new empirical observations on concept learning by children. The cognitive processes involved when children of various ages integrate these different sources of information to form new concepts will be investigated in several knowledge domains. In addition to addre ....Category learning and conceptual change in children. Fundamental to children's cognitive development is the ability to form concepts and generalize beyond direct experience. This project examines the effect of pre-existing beliefs and new empirical observations on concept learning by children. The cognitive processes involved when children of various ages integrate these different sources of information to form new concepts will be investigated in several knowledge domains. In addition to addressing key theoretical questions about the role of exemplar diversity and sub-typing processes in concept learning the project will develop and evaluate innovative techniques for teaching science concepts to young children.Read moreRead less
Acquiring Social Fears in Infancy: Underlying Mechanisms and Implications for Behavioural Intervention. Social fears are wide-spread in the community and crippling for those affected. This study aims to (i) isolate parental behaviours and practices that result in elevated and persistent infant fear within social interactions, and (ii) establish the psychological mechanisms (e.g., observational learning) and temperamental features that underpin the transmission of social fears from mother to infa ....Acquiring Social Fears in Infancy: Underlying Mechanisms and Implications for Behavioural Intervention. Social fears are wide-spread in the community and crippling for those affected. This study aims to (i) isolate parental behaviours and practices that result in elevated and persistent infant fear within social interactions, and (ii) establish the psychological mechanisms (e.g., observational learning) and temperamental features that underpin the transmission of social fears from mother to infant. By elucidating the processes involved in the transmission of social fears, this investigation will enrich theories of emotional development in infancy, contribute to our understanding of serious conditions such as childhood shyness and Social Phobia, and provide an empirical basis for the development of effective methods of early intervention.Read moreRead less
The development of causal induction. An ability to reason inductively is an essential prerequisite for effective learning and decision-making. Inductive thinking is also closely related to creativity and innovation. By acquiring a better understanding of how such reasoning develops we will contribute to the enhancement of techniques that help children to learn and refine inductive reasoning skills, and will provide a foundation for the development of programs to assist children who have partic ....The development of causal induction. An ability to reason inductively is an essential prerequisite for effective learning and decision-making. Inductive thinking is also closely related to creativity and innovation. By acquiring a better understanding of how such reasoning develops we will contribute to the enhancement of techniques that help children to learn and refine inductive reasoning skills, and will provide a foundation for the development of programs to assist children who have particular problems in inductive reasoning and generalisation (i.e. those with autism or an intellectual disability).Read moreRead less
Ageing and self-regulation. Australia is faced with an ageing population, and thus an increasingly important national goal is ageing well and ageing productively. Our preliminary research suggests that self-regulation may be a significant problem for older Australians. The proposed research will provide a clearer picture of when and why older adults have difficulties regulating their behaviour, and which older adults are particularly susceptible to lapses in self-control. If older adults do hav ....Ageing and self-regulation. Australia is faced with an ageing population, and thus an increasingly important national goal is ageing well and ageing productively. Our preliminary research suggests that self-regulation may be a significant problem for older Australians. The proposed research will provide a clearer picture of when and why older adults have difficulties regulating their behaviour, and which older adults are particularly susceptible to lapses in self-control. If older adults do have difficulties self-regulating, and if these self-regulation failures incur health, financial and social costs, by gaining a clearer understanding of this problem, the proposed research will take an important step in improving the lives of older Australians. Read moreRead less
Everyday cognition in older adulthood: Mechanisms contributing to the age-prospective memory paradox. Australia is faced with an ageing population, and thus an increasingly important goal is ageing well and ageing productively. The proposed research will clarify why older adults perform extremely well on prospective memory (PM) tasks based in everyday environments, but very poorly on PM tasks that take place in the controlled situation of the laboratory. Advancing our understanding of why this ....Everyday cognition in older adulthood: Mechanisms contributing to the age-prospective memory paradox. Australia is faced with an ageing population, and thus an increasingly important goal is ageing well and ageing productively. The proposed research will clarify why older adults perform extremely well on prospective memory (PM) tasks based in everyday environments, but very poorly on PM tasks that take place in the controlled situation of the laboratory. Advancing our understanding of why this 'paradoxical' pattern of age effects occurs will help clarify how other aspects of everyday cognition in older adulthood may be optimised, and consequently take an important step in improving the lives of older adults. The results will also inform development of rehabilitation strategies for clinical groups who present with PM difficulties. Read moreRead less
Predicting health, well-being, and educational success in emerging adults: An 8 year longitudinal study. This project will inform the community about factors that affect the psychological, physical, academic, and employment outcomes of emerging adults. It will improve our knowledge of why some young people do not reach their full potential. The project will provide a comprehensive assessment of factors associated with well-being across several domains. It will better equip and assist professiona ....Predicting health, well-being, and educational success in emerging adults: An 8 year longitudinal study. This project will inform the community about factors that affect the psychological, physical, academic, and employment outcomes of emerging adults. It will improve our knowledge of why some young people do not reach their full potential. The project will provide a comprehensive assessment of factors associated with well-being across several domains. It will better equip and assist professionals to identify early those youth at risk of having poor psychological, health, and employment prospects post-school. The project will inform the development of intervention programs for young people and maximise their overall adjustment and well-being several years later.Read moreRead less
An Investigation of Intersubjectivity: Music Therapy and Hospitalised Infants. A contingent relationship is vital for normal infant development. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which supplies life-saving modern medical technology to very sick infants, is also an environment where contingency is rarely available to the infant . In this environment, a Music Therapist ?improvising? with the infant, can re-introduce contingency to the infant, and encourage infant self-regulation. This project inv ....An Investigation of Intersubjectivity: Music Therapy and Hospitalised Infants. A contingent relationship is vital for normal infant development. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which supplies life-saving modern medical technology to very sick infants, is also an environment where contingency is rarely available to the infant . In this environment, a Music Therapist ?improvising? with the infant, can re-introduce contingency to the infant, and encourage infant self-regulation. This project investigates the efficacy of a Music Therapy intervention in improving infant health, and micro-analyses the interaction between infant and therapist in order to further understand the nature of the Communicative Musicality of the interaction.Read moreRead less
Developing and testing a mnemonic theory of odour perception. This project studies how odours are perceived and remembered. Its theoretical framework is a model of olfaction containing a central assumption that past experience of an odour determines how it is perceived and how well it can be discriminated from other odours. Thus, the project tests predictions that discrimination between odours depends on age and on culture-specific experience, as well as other aspects of the model, like discre ....Developing and testing a mnemonic theory of odour perception. This project studies how odours are perceived and remembered. Its theoretical framework is a model of olfaction containing a central assumption that past experience of an odour determines how it is perceived and how well it can be discriminated from other odours. Thus, the project tests predictions that discrimination between odours depends on age and on culture-specific experience, as well as other aspects of the model, like discrete memory systems, imagery and different ways of learning about odours. The project's outcome will be its integration of odour perception, learning and memory, into the first comprehensive information-processing model of human olfaction. Read moreRead less